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Article published December 8, 2012

GOP piled onto debt

GG
John L. Marten Summit Township

On Dec. 5, I read Orlando S. Pride’s latest rant in the Butler Eagle. I feel a need to respond with something called facts.Facts are something Republicans have trouble understanding, but I will try anyway.President George W. Bush didn’t pay for his wars on terror. These were called emergency supplemental appropriations bills — in other words, off the books. Ninety-three percent of Bush’s war in Iraq was funded that way.When President Barack Obama came into office in January 2009, the total was $1.6 trillion for these wars. Obama included this amount in the national debt. Obama could have hid that amount, like Bush did, but he did not.Another inconvenient fact is that when a presidential term begins, that person starts with the budget approved by his predecessor. The new president’s first budget only begins to shape in the second year of the term.Also, Obama’s budgets had to include $1.4 trillion in interest payments from the administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Remember, President Bill Clinton had a surplus and added nothing to the debt.Only “fiscally conservative” Republicans have piled onto the debt in the last 32 years. I guess that’s the definition of oxymoron.And, lastly, the Congressional Budget Office projected because of the Bush-era tax cuts, the government lost more than $1.6 trillion in revenue.Republicans psuhed this tax cut to help the “job creators.” After hearing this fact, you have to ask: Where are the jobs?I know these facts are hard to swallow for Republicans, but imagine what would have happened if Mitt Romney would have won.